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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Mark Des Cotes, I’m a dog person and I believe if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share the rollercoaster ride my day has been.
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What I Learned Yesterday:
I originally had a fun story to share with you, but today started out as a bad day and I wasn’t really in the mood for a fun story. I’ll save it for another time. I went ahead and recorded an earlier story that was a somewhat depressing account of what was happening today. Then we received a phone call and everything changed. Let me explain.
As I said in my intro, I’m a dog person. I’ve been living with one or more cats in the house ever since Kim and I first moved in together, but she’s the cat lover, I just happen to live in the same house with one and tolerate it for her sake. Dogs on the other hand, I can get into.
We have three Shetland Sheepdogs or Shelties for short. If you’re not sure what a Sheltie is, just imagine a small version of Lassie. Maybe I’m dating myself too much with that reference. Shelties look like small Collies. Some people actually call them miniature collies although any respectable Sheltie owner will tell you there is no such thing as a miniature collie. Shelties are their own breed, they just happen to look similar.
Our oldest dog, Kolby, is 11 years old. He’s the kindest and sweetest dog and I’m not ashamed to say he’s my favourite of the three. He’s the one that sleeps at my feet while I’m working and joins me on the couch while watching TV. He always has to have a family member in sight.
My wife used to compete in Agility with him. That’s where the dog has to navigate an obstacle course in the fastest time without making any errors. Kolby was good, very good. My wife and he won top spot at the regional level, and competed at the nationals, where they both qualified to move on to the world event. Unfortunately the World Agility Competition that year was being held in the Philippines and we couldn’t afford to go. Kim kept competing with him until a few years ago when he developed an untreatable eye problem that is slowly causing him to loose his vision. It’s sad sometimes, depending on the lighting in the room, when I throw a toy for him, it could land a foot in front of him and yet he can’t find it.
A couple of weeks ago we noticed Kolby having trouble peeing. Instead of finding a good spot and just going, he would stop and go for a bit, move somewhere else and go again, and then again and again. I called our vet and he asked me to bring Kolby in along with a urine sample. Collecting the sample I noticed it was a bit reddish. Deducing a bladder infection the vet gave us some antibiotics and sent us on our way. 10 days later there was no improvement. So last week, I brought him back to the vet. Thinking the bleeding could be caused by kidney stones the vet took an x-ray. No stones were detected but he did see something odd. On the bladder, right were the urinary track comes out there was a round “something” a bit smaller than a golf ball. The vet inserted a catheter in Kolby and took a urine sample. Examining the sample under a microscope the vet saw what he thought was a large cluster of cancer cells. Now, his equipment isn’t good enough for an actual diagnosis so samples were shipped to a lab but by the time they tested them the results were inconclusive.
Our vet is a very well known and respected member of his profession. He told us that even though the results were inconclusive he knows what he saw, and he’s pretty sure it’s a cancerous tumor we see on the x-ray. The only way to be sure is exploratory surgery, which we scheduled for today. Over the last few days Kolby started waking us up in the middle of the night asking to go out, something he’s never done. At first once a night, but the last two nights he woke us up a couple of times. He also lost bladder control twice in the house over the weekend. His condition was worsening fast.
What’s hard is that other than the bladder problem, Kolby seems to be in very good spirits. He still wags his tail and wants to play, comes running at treat time and gets all excited for his daily walk. Although often when he’s lying down he’ll yelp and jump up for no apparent reason. We can only assume because something is hurting him.
This morning at 7 am I brought Kolby to the vet for the surgery. It was hard leaving him there. The vet told us we had to decide what to do if it is cancer and it’s spread and he’s not able to remove it. Did we want him to just sew Kolby back up, send him home with a cone on his head to recuperate from surgery as the cancer continues to eats away at him? Or do we want to end his suffering and have the vet peacefully put Kolby down? I recorded my earlier episode while waiting for that phone call and I have to say I got quite emotional while doing it.
My daughter, who’s lived with Kolby most of her life, said bye to him as she left for school today, not knowing if she would ever see him again. My son is at university and didn’t get a chance to say his goodbyes. My wife took the day off from work. She didn’t want to be there when I called with the tough question. And I couldn’t concentrate on designing. Instead I recorded a very emotional episode for this show with the thought in my head that I wouldn’t be seeing my friend again.
Then the phone call came. The spot on the x-ray was a tumor and the vet was able to remove what he saw. Nothing had spread beyond the bladder as far as he could see. There’s still a chance that he didn’t get everything so he’s going to send the tumor for testing to confirm whether or not it’s cancerous and we can then decide how to proceed. But for the immediate future, Kolby should be ok.
To say my wife and I were relieved is an understatement. We picked Kolby up this afternoon, something I honestly didn’t think I’d be doing after dropping him off this morning. He’s still groggy from the anesthetic but he’s back at my side, recovering on the dog bed next to me.
Here’s what I’ve learned.
We are pet people. We’re not like some people who refer to our pets as our children. We have a son and a daughter who are our children. Our dogs and cat are our pets. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t an important part of our family. My son was 7 years old when we got Kolby and my daughter was only 4. Our oldest dog has spent his whole life with my kids and they love him as much as he loves them.
Two years ago my mother had a severe stroke. She was conscious but unresponsive and the doctors didn’t see any chance of recovery. My dad, brothers and I decided to stop her dialysis and let nature take it’s course. She passes away a week later. We made the tough decision to stop the treatment that was keeping her alive. But we didn’t end her life; it was her diabetes that took her.
Today could have been different. Depending on what the vet told us, we would have had to make the tough decision weather or not to end Kolby’s life. We could have chose to bring him home and let him to continue to live with what he had, but for how long, and in what condition, we couldn’t have known. Unfortunately, pets can’t tell us how they feel, if they are in pain and suffering, if they have more in them to give or if it’s their time to go. That’s left up to us to decide and that’s a huge responsibility. We feel very lucky that the vet was able to remove the tumor. We don’t know if that’s the end of it. Maybe the tumor will grow back, maybe not. But for now Kolby will be better and we’ll enjoy him for whatever extra time we get with him.
We’ve had to put dogs and cats down before. It’s one of the responsibilities of being a pet owner and it’s never easy. I’m grateful that we didn’t have to make that decision today. We’ll be facing this dilemma again many times in the future and when those times come we’ll make the right decision, no matter how hard it is.
Christmas is a time when some of people give and receive pets as gifts. If you are giving or receiving a pet this holiday season, please be conscious of the time and dedication that goes into raising one. My wife and I wouldn’t give up being pet owners for anything. It is a lot of work, but for us, the rewards are endless.
I’m Mark Des Cotes and this has been stuff I learned yesterday.
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